The 2019 Berkeley housing pipeline map, a Berkeleyside special report

Berkeleyside has been hard at work this past week scouring planning documents and our archives to bring you the latest information about housing built, under construction, approved and proposed in Berkeley as of March 2019. Today’s installment is an interactive map showing the locations of nearly 5,000 units and about 2,300 group living accommodation beds (that’s usually student housing).

Different color markers in the map above show project status. Click each marker to learn more about each project. The caveat: We’ve done our best from the available information but we expect to update the map and data in the next few days and going forward. See an error or have a question? Please use the tips form to let us know. We appreciate the chance to fix our mistakes or make our reporting more complete.

This map includes 69 housing projects in Berkeley: 15 have been built, seven are under construction, 21 have been approved and 15 have been submitted. One — with 260 units proposed, half of which would be affordable at 80% of the area median income, aka workforce housing — is tied up in a lawsuit. Then there are the group living projects, most of which are dormitories: four are complete and two are under construction; three have been approved and one more has been submitted.

Put another way, for general housing: at least 1,260 units have been built since about 2014, 606 are under construction, 1,545 have been approved (including 343 units for seniors, people with special needs, those who have been homeless and other specialized categories) and another 1,260 have been submitted. For group living, 1,265 beds are complete and 489 are under construction; 499 have been approved and another 50 have been submitted. (That’s not counting 150 new residential units proposed for UC Berkeley’s Goldman School.)

If all the units were built (not counting the student housing), it would be around 4,930 units. But a number of these projects are just beginning, while others have languished and may not ever come to be. And, for now, the Association of Bay Area Government tally shows Berkeley still has more to build in an effort to help meet the regional need.

The map markers above show how many affordable units would be required for each project. But developers also have the option to pay a fee into the city’s Housing Trust Fund instead. Berkeleyside has asked the city for data about which projects have paid.

We’ll continue to share data on Berkeley housing as it becomes available. The city says it plans to release its second pipeline report in May to take a closer look at housing proposed or built in the city along with its affordability levels.